“I have 150 people who are ready to be baptized.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
The men at the tent were Bible workers from an organization called Train Them 2 Fish, a non-profit, co-founded by Thomas Ongasa, that works to spread the gospel in French-speaking countries in Africa. Train Them 2 Fish focuses on medical missionary work, evangelism, and evangelistic training. The organization is currently partnering with Light Bearers to distribute a container of French Bible study guides in the DRC and to provide Bible workers who can follow up with people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the ways the Bible workers distribute literature is by setting up a tent with tables in a village, like the one Yanvu stopped at.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Bible workers didn\u2019t hear from Yanvu after he left. That is, until three months later, when he came walking up, under the trees, again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cDo you have any more of those Bible study guides?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYes, we have more,\u201d they replied, excited that he wanted another set.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cCan you give me about 20 boxes of them?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yanvu brought a team of young people with him to help carry the 20 boxes of Bible study guides as the men at the tables watched, open-mouthed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Six months went by and no one heard anything from Yanvu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then they got a call.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI have distributed the study guides to almost every home in my villages. I have 150 people who are ready to be baptized.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What?<\/em> Shocked, the team at Train Them 2 Fish sent a Bible worker to follow up with Yanvu and see if what he was saying was true. It wasn\u2019t long before the Bible worker called them back: \u201cThose people are coming every Sabbath to study the Bible and they need a pastor. They need somebody to help them get baptized.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Soon, Yanvu was standing in front of his people to announce that he had become a Seventh-day Adventist. It was a special occasion, so he dressed in a long, white shirt with intricate black stitching winding around the collar. On his head, he wore a cap with a leopard skin design printed on the fabric, which symbolized the position of power he holds. Soon, Yanvu was baptized. He now gives Bible studies to the people in his villages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are more people in positions of power, like Yanvu, who can\u2019t shake the feeling that there is more to life. There are average Joes and Janes who want to know if there is a God. Sometimes the reason they don\u2019t accept the gospel isn\u2019t because they love sin too much, but because they need someone to present the gospel in a language they can understand\u2014both literally and figuratively. God is working everywhere and with everyone before we even meet them. We are the ones showing up to the party. He only asks us to make the good news of who He is accessible<\/em> to everyone and He will do the rest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At Light Bearers, we are passionate about vindicating the beauty of God\u2019s character. One of the ways we do this is through publishing literature and distributing it around the world in local languages, thus giving people the dignity of hearing the gospel in their own tongue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2021, we made the decision to publish and distribute Truth Link<\/em> as our primary Bible study guide from now on. Truth Link<\/em> is a set of 27 study guides that take the reader through the fundamentals of Scripture but with God\u2019s love as the focus in each one, whether the topic is prophecy, the state of the dead, or the antichrist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The first containers of Truth Link<\/em> went to Zambia and the response was tremendously positive. Why? Because the study guides marry theology with the beauty of God\u2019s character, which allows them to reach the human heart in a uniquely powerful way. However, at the time, Truth Link<\/em> was only available in English. In 2022, we were able to translate the study guides into Spanish and French (spoken by 500 million and 277 million people worldwide, respectively) as well as some other European languages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With that said, we feel an urgency to continue translating Truth Link<\/em> into other languages (specifically, Bemba, Swahili, Tonga, and Tagalog) to make it more widely available throughout Africa and the Philippines. Though about two dozen countries in Africa list English as an official language1<\/sup>, only 130 million people speak it out of Africa\u2019s population of one billion people2<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n But we need your help to make this happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Would you consider a special gift to help share the gospel with someone in their native language?<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/God_Didnt_Show_Up_You_Did_1.jpg?resize=1024%2C403&ssl=1\")
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